The Culture of Shopping

It is strange the things about your environment you take for granted. For example, in the U.S. I have stores I like to shop at, and know which ones I like for which reasons. Some are good for inexpensive things, others for quality, others for trendy. There are some stores I almost never go in because they are too expensive, or just not my style. Occasionally I will find I have misjudged a store and will recategorize it in my mind. Or a new store might open up and I will go in to investigate.

Here, all the stores are new to me. It would be nice if I could find parallels to my favorite places back home. There is a Payless equivalent, called Priceless (one of the upshots of buying cheap shoes is that you are almost guaranteed that they are not leather). I have found nothing like Target which is one of my favorite U.S. stores. And although I don't shop at the Gap often, I could have used one today since it is the only store I have found that makes jeans in my size (I have short legs).

John's loan money came today and so I set out to find a pair of skinny leg jeans. I wanted skinny jeans because the only waterproof shoes I have are my boots and they fit more easily over skinny jeans. I used to have a pair, but the library ruined them.

Having recently scoured the mall for 1940s clothing, I had learned that H&M has trendy clothing that isn't too expensive. I was pretty happy with their jeans, although they were all a bit long. But finding a decent store was only half the battle. The sizes over here are all different.

I started off with two pairs of jeans in the two smallest sizes I saw on the rack. To compound my private embarrassment, the skinny legs of the jeans were so close fitting I couldn't get the first pair over my calves. I tried on a total of 4 jeans before I found an appropriate size and style (because there are different kinds of skinny jeans).

The H&M jeans were less expensive than my Gap jeans and they are more or less what I was hunting for. I'd say, it was worth it for dry feet. And now I've conquered another aspect of living in England: shopping for jeans.